Roman Catholicism is one of the oldest and largest Christian denominations in the world. Are its doctrines biblical? What do the Sctriptures have to say about it?
The 'Catholic' Epistles
The 'Catholic Epistles' is a scholars' term for those New Testament letters (James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1,2 & 3 John, and Jude) that are not addressed to a particular congregation (e.g. Corinthians, Thessalonians, Romans), ethnic/national group of people (e.g. Hebrews) or private person (e.g. Timothy, Philemon) but may be said to have been addressed to a 'general' or 'catholic' (universal) audience, with no particular individual or community in mind. Clement of Alexandria speaks of the Epistle sent out by the Council at Jerusalam (Ac.15:23) as "the catholic Epistle of all the Apostles"; and Origin applies the same term to the Epistle of Barnabas as well as to the Epistles of John, Peter, and Jude. Later the word 'Catholic' was applied to Epistles which were accepted by the whole Messianic Community or 'Universal Church' and were orthodox in doctrine in the same way that 'Catholic' was applied to that community of Christians who acknowledged the Bishop of Rome as the supreme pontiff of head of the Messianic Community (Church). Thus the word eventually came to mean 'genuine' or 'canonical'. Accordingly, with regard to apocryphal or pseudepigraphic documents put forward in the name of Peter. Eusebius says "we know nothing of them being handed down as catholic writings" (Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica iii.3).
Thus over time the idea of a 'catholic Church', describing all true Christian/Messianic believers everywhere, evolved into the institution and organisation, with the Pope at its head, called the 'Roman Catholic Church' that was understood to portrayed as the 'One-and-Only True-Church' with complete spiritual and political power, hased at Rome, in much the same way that Mormons regard their Church as the 'one-and-only-true-church' based in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, with a 'prophet' at its head.
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